Japanese submarine I-25

Japanese submarine I-25 was under the command of Lieutenant Commander Meiji Tagami who had graduated from Class 51 at Etajima, Hiroshima. 26 year old Lieutenant Tatsuo Tsukudo was the Executive Officer(XO) on I-25.

I-25, of 2,600 tons, was 108 metres long, with a range of 14,000 miles, a maximum surface speed of 23.5 knots and a maximum submerged speed of 8 knots. It carried a two-seater Yokosuka E14Y reconnaissance floatplane know to the Allies as "Glen". It was disassembled and stowed in the front of the sub.

The I-25 in Battle

I-25 and three other submarines patrolled a line 120 miles north of Oahu during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. After the Japanese aircraft carriers sailed west after Pearl Harbor, I-25 and eight other submarines sailed eastwards to patrol the west coast of the United States. I-25 attacked a cargo ship 10 miles off the US coast. The ship managed to escape but ran aground at the mouth of the Columbia River. I-25 then returned to Kwajalein atoll, arriving on 11 January 1942 to refuel and be refurbished.

Submarine I-25 left Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands on 5 February 1942 for its next operational patrol in the south Pacific. Lt. Commander Tagami's orders were to reconnoitre the Australian harbours of Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart followed by the New Zealand harbours of Wellington and Auckland.

I-25 travelled on the surface for nine days, but as it approached the Australian coastline, it only travelled on the surface under the cover of night.

On 13 February 1942, I-25 sunk the United Kingdom merchant ship "Derrymore" at Template:Coor dm. On Saturday 14 February 1942, I-25 was within a few miles of the coast near Sydney. The searchlights in Sydney could clearly be seen from the bridge of I-25. Tagami then took I-25 to a position 100 miles south east of Sydney.

A number of days of rough swell prevented an immediate launch of the "Glen" floatplane. They stayed submerged during the day and went back to the surface at night.

Finally on Tuesday 17 February 1942 Warrant Flying Officer Nobuo Fujita took off in the "Glen" for a reconnaissance flight over Sydney Harbour. The purpose was to look at Sydney's airbase.

By 7.30AM Fujita had returned to I-25 and disassembled the "Glen" and stowed it in the water tight hangar. Commander Tagami then pointed I-25 southwards on the surface at 14 knots. By midday on Wednesday 18 February 1942 they were nearly 400 miles south east of Sydney still heading southwards.

Their next mission was a similar flight over Melbourne. Tagami decided to launch the aircraft from Cape Wickham at the northern end of King Island at the western end of Bass Strait about half way between Victoria and Tasmania. The floatplane was launched on 26 February 1942 for its reconnaissanceflight to Melbourne over Port Phillip Bay.

Fujita's next reconnaissance flight in Australia was over Hobart on 1 March 1942. I-25 then headed for New Zealand where Fujita flew another reconnaissance flight over Wellington on 8 March 1942. Fujita next flew over Oakland on 13 March 1942, followed by Fiji on 17 March 1942.

Submarine I-25 returned to its base at Kwajalein on 31 March 1942.

First Aerial Bombing of the Continental U.S.

In June of 1942, I-25 was patrolling the coast of Oregon, and shelled Battery Russell, a small coastal army installation. Damage was minimal. On September 10 1942, the crew again deployed the Glen, which dropped incendiary bombs over Oregon forest land, in the first ever time that the continental United States was bombed from the air. The goal was to trigger wildfires across the coast, but the winds were insufficient to allow the fires to spread. In fact, had the winds been sufficiently brisk to stoke widespread forest fires, the lightweight Glen would have been unable to fly.

I-25 was sunk less than a year later by a destroyer, the USS Patterson (DD-392), off the New Hebrides Islands on September 3, 1943.

External Links

• Aviation History article (http://history1900s.about.com/library/prm/bljapanesebombwc1.htm/)